"Yes, that was the correct call, as far as simultaneous possession,'' Easley said, in an appearance to promote his book, "Making The Call: Living With Your Decisions."

Easley made the same declaration last Sunday, at the Seahawks' Richard Sherman's celebrity softball game, at which the most-recognized replacement official in NFL history bantered with fans and players, including Tate.

The title alone, meanwhile, indicates that his book takes the same position.

On Friday, Easley went on to explain his rationale, with the partial qualifier that it was, technically, referee Wayne Elliott who made the final decision to not overturn Easley's call in the end zone.

Tate and the Packers' M.D. Jennings "went up together, they came down with the ball — it was indisputable as far as the control of the process of the catch,'' Easley said. "Replay looked at it, they looked at it from every angle — I didn't go under the hood, my referee went under the hood — but I talked to the replay officials, and if the ball comes loose anywhere in this process …"

At that point, Easley referred to the replay being aired along with his answer, and he continued, "You can see him coming down now, and right in there, you don't know if they keep full possession. But all I saw were arms around it, locked together.

"I saw Tate come down first with both hands on the ball, and then I saw Jennings come down, and they both came down together, and I was hoping by the time I got to that pile, that somebody had definite control. That prayer was unanswered,'' he said, smiling.

The aftermath, Easley said, was complicated by the uniqueness of the play: Nobody he spoke to, he said, could recall anything like that in any game they had seen or participated in.

"So, there's no history of the play; otherwise, you'd see it played over and over to compare it," he said. "That made it difficult. I think it affected a lot of the outcry, enhanced it — not to mention the lockout and everything like that.

"My life was absolutely insane for a time."

How insane? Easley recalled his boss telling him, a few days after the call, that he was blowing up on Twitter. " 'You heard of Kim Kardashian? … Well, you're more popular than she is,' '' he said his boss told him. "I said, 'Well, that's trouble.' ''

Easley said that he also has been asked repeatedly since the call about the reaction by the Packers' Aaron Rodgers, who was caught on camera afterward mouthing a choice profanity directly to him on the field.

"I'll stay away from that," Easley said. "I've given him his space. I expect him to be upset. I would be, too.''